Explore "Becalmed" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
1. Would that the winds might only blow / As they blew in the golden long ago -- !
Laden with odors of Orient isles / Where ever and ever the sunshine smiles, / And the bright sands blend with the shady trees, / And the lotus blooms in the midst of these.
2. Warm winds won from the midland vales / To where the tress of the Siren trails / O'er the flossy tip of the mountain phlox / And the bare limbs twined in the crested rocks, / High above as the seagulls flap / Their lopping wings at the thunder-clap.
3. Ah! That the winds might rise and blow / The great surge up from the port below, / Bloating the sad, lank, silken sails / Of the Argo out with the swift, sweet gales / That blew from Colchis when Jason had / His love's full will and his heart was glad -- / When Medea's voice was soft and low.
Ah! That the winds might rise and blow!